An Ending and a Beginning

Well, here we are... Saturday night. My last opportunity to fulfill the "guest blogger" role before Suzanne returns tomorrow. (Excuse me while I do a happy dance and repeat: Suzanne comes home tomorrow!!!) Although I did not get to write as often as I would have liked, I did enjoy sharing a little of myself with all of blogdom this week. And who knows? Maybe I'll try to write some more in the future. I did start my own blog back in June 2004, after all. It consists of two entries. I know, I'm pathetic.

Suzanne, on the other hand, is a "real" blogger. 800 posts and counting since she began back in May 2004. Her efforts are not only prolific, but also entertaining and thought-provoking. Everything from The Boy to home improvement to pets to food to family to politics to suburban critters to vacations to computer games to health to gay rights to friends to... well, you get the idea. And once, back in July 2004, she wrote the first installment of the story of how we met. You want Part II? Keep nagging her.

Tonight, my intent is to share my side of the story.

I'd been single for several months following an ugly departure from an extremely unhealthy relationship. It was 1998, and I was just discovering how much fun the Internet could be. I will take a moment to admit that I spent a fair amount of time in a lesbian chat room back then, and considered some of the regulars to be friends. A couple of such friends helped me recognize the need to end my then-relationship. And those same friends encouraged me to seek a new partner when I felt I was ready. One of them sent me a link to the AOL "women to women" personals. Although I read many, many postings I only answered two. The first actually responded and we met for dinner only to find we had very little in common. The second, "UpUpUpUp", wrote a short, sterile "thanks for writing, I'll be in touch when I have more time" type of response and then never wrote again. I recall being a bit disappointed at the blow off, because her post had seemed quite promising. She was obviously literate and I appreciated her values... family and dogs being top priorities, you see. And she didn't seem to take "dating" lightly - she wanted a relationship. But like I said, "Up" blew me off.

So I kept reading the online personals, but none really caught my attention... until "Words Rock" posted. "Words" clearly had a good sense of humor, and was an articulate wordsmith. I also appreciated that she liked dogs, books, baseball, and football. Score! So I viewed her personal profile to see if I could glean any additional information. And that's where I saw it: a rather unusual quote from a Tori Amos song. Unusual, yet naggingly familiar. Ah, yes! It had been included as a tag line from the personal ad of UpUpUpUp all those weeks before. Wheels started turning. Alexandria? Dogs? Family? Clever writing? And suddenly, I knew. This was the same woman that had dismissed my earlier response. I mentally debated my course of action. Feeling somewhat discouraged from "Up's" rebuff, I did not wish to compose another detailed reply. Instead, I opted to simply let her know, in a humorous way, that I knew.

"Up? Is that you? LOL"

She didn't blow me off that time. And she was even more amazing, and just so "right" for me, that I still sometimes can't believe how fortunate I am.

I'll leave the crafting of Part II to she-who-blogs-so-successfully. Feel free to nag her if you're so inclined.

As for guest-blogging... my time has come to an end. It's been fun.

WenWhit


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